Recent clinical evidence suggests that surgical treatments for obesity, such as Rouen-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) can cause remission of diabetes in 75%-80% of patients. Hence, minimally invasive procedures including intra-luminal gastrointestinal bypass implants have recently been proposed to mimic all or some of the anatomical, physiological and metabolic changes achieved by a Rouen-Y gastric bypass. Some of these procedures provide a means to internally bypass a portion of the small intestine. It has been observed through anecdotal clinical evidence that the effect of such bypass means may be causing remission of metabolic disorders, which persists months after the bypass means is removed from a patient.
Current pharmaceutical approaches to modifying intestinal microbial flora involve the administration of therapy to selectively ameliorate “bad” (having a negative effect on the health of a patient) bacteria in the intestines in order to promote colonization by “good” (having a positive effect on the health of a patient) bacteria. The field of probiotic-based pharmaceutical therapy is based on such a paradigm. One of the shortcomings of such an approach is the difficulty in targeting just the bad bacteria, which has already colonized in the intestines, to be eliminated. Therefore, a need still exists for a system and a method for affecting the intestinal microbial flora to benefit a patient.